Don’t respond, just hang up. If you get a call, don't press 1 to speak to a live operator or any other number to be removed from the list. If you respond in any way, it will probably just lead to more robocalls.

Contact your phone provider. Ask your phone provider if they charge for a service that blocks that particular number. Remember that telemarketers change the numbers they call from easily and often, so it might not be worth paying a fee to block a number that will almost always change.

Put your phone number on the Do Not Call registry. Access the registry online or by calling 1-888-382-1222.

File a complaint with the FTC. Report the experience online or by calling 1-877-382-4357.

Comments

My cable co. blocks calls if the number is on the block list, but how can you put a number on this list, if the caller I.D. says no name, no number, I have been getting calls twice a day for weeks now,and yes I am on the "do not call list", which is useless. What is the FTC doing about such calls??

I HAVE HAD A CALL JUST A COUPLE OF DAYS AGO. BUT I HAD ONE PRIOR TO THAQT CALL. SO THIS TIMWE IDID JUST HANG UP. NOW I AQM RECEIVING MANY, MANY MAYOR CALLS. BUT THAT IS NOW NORMAL WITH AN ELECTION IN BOSTON, MA FOR MAYOR.

What about emails? I thought it was required for businesses to have an "opt out" link in each email. Sears is sending DAILY emails and this is their version of how I can opt out:
"If you believe you received this email in error, contact us at Shop Your Way℠, 1-800-***-****, where our helpful staff will verify your enrollment in our rewards program. "

I am NOT going to subject myself to their high pressure tactics. But I want them to stop sending this junk.

HI, IF U USE A KMART OR SEARS "SHOP YOUR WAY" REWARDS CARD (oops, caps off) like my wife and i do, you can choose which emails they send you and how often....i added "daily deals" and OMG i got sooooo many emails from 'em...maybe u can live with one per week, and "opt out" of all but special acct rel;ated notices...not sure if that will reduce your "rewatrds" tho....login to ur sywrewards acct thru kmart or sears website, good luck!

I have been getting phone calls from India saying something wrong with my computer. I have asked and asked for them to stop calling. The only phone number showing is a 1. I have filed a complaint but how are they going to trace it with a 1. They are beginning to call early in morning at 5 or 6 o'clock and this is beginning to be harassment. What am I to do???

I've been getting these calls for over 6 months. In the beginning the said they worked for Microsoft and there was a problem with my computer. I even talked to a supervisor there and asked the my number be removed. It does not work. Im fed up with it too.

Report to police station in your town. The police put the case number if a caller is continue harrasement. The police will report it to state and USDOJ and if you would like to report Secret Service about caller from wide world.

The police in my town (Oakland CA) won't accept complaints about telemarketers. They refer you to the FTC, which hasn't made a dent in the epidemic of telemarketing fraud. Obviously, policy makers have been bought off by the scammers.

With your iPhone (with iOS 7): Using the Phone app go to "Recent Calls." Click on the "Information" symbol on the far right. (Circle with an i in it.) Scroll to the bottom and click on "Block This Caller." Just that easy!

I cannot understand why these calls are not being stopped by the FTC. Almost all the robocalls I receive are for credit card interest rate reduction or for a free home security system. No matter what you do the calls do not stop!!!

hi! THIS IS MAINLY FOR THE CALLS THAT CONNECT YOU TO A LIVE PERSON... like the "credit services" and fake "tech support" and extended warranty crap calls.... i truly believe that the best way to get them to REALLY remove you from their lists is to waste as much of their time as possible without ever giving them any info to exploit and without ever letting them know that u r messing with them...like asking them to wait while u look for some paperwork (that of course you arent really looking for) or asking them to wait while u are getting better eyeglasses , etc..anything that wastes their time...all the while being nice to them, even enthusiastic, excited about their offer....pretend to need their computer tech support, but then play really dumb concerning your computer....chances are they will hang up on you...they aRE trying to make money, not waste it, and will soon learn they cant get any from u, what do u think?

If these robocalls are truly illegal, against federal law, why isn't the NSA stopping these people? They aren't from other countries. I talked to an African American woman today and a man with no accent at all last week. I told the man he was a criminal. He said, I am not a criminal. The woman just hung up on me when I wouldn't tell her my name.

Although it is nice they have had some success on stopping some of this and some prosecutions I give the FTC a failing grade at implementation of their rules. You can not email them directly as they would not have the time to answer or interest it seems. I would gladly submit the audio files from the T-Mobile of the various unwanted offers that leave a voice mail once out of 30+ calls from the robocall. The donotcall complaint form doesn't offer any attachment capability to forward the file or email the file directly too the FTC.

My mother has gotten on somebodies list and receives calls daily from charities and other scams on her landline. I realize the rules allow certain people such as those claiming to be charities and political donation suckers to call. Thus the do not call list doesn't work for those.

However I receive calls twice a day from numbers that have invalid prefixes for the area code they are calling from. These are obviously spoofed numbers. I no longer get calls it seems on my landline which do the significant tax structure on that landline causing the bill to be nearly double I will drop that service from CenturyLink.

But I get these calls on a prepaid phone via T-Mobile. When I had a family plan with T-Mobile I never got these calls from strange numbers including one that called back twice from Nigeria.

Upon asking T-Mobile directly about ability to block unwanted calls as they are coming even spoofed numbers today T-Mobile's response is that I could do that on a post paid plan. So basically T-Mobile has the technology to block these calls but does not and doesn't offer any method of blocking it or care if you are one of their cheaper pre-paid customers. Get this our pre-paid phone numbers are the same former family plan numbers.

I do not answer calls from unrecognized numbers. Why would I want to spend my minutes on them. It seems to be a waste of both the telco resources and a lack of internet security when network carriers do not stop this at the source and it goes on for months with the same spoofed number calling.

Leave a Comment

Read Our Privacy Act Statement

It is your choice whether to submit a comment. If you do, you must create a user name, or we will not post your comment. The Federal Trade Commission Act authorizes this information collection for purposes of managing online comments. Comments and user names are part of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) public records system, and user names also are part of the FTC’s computer user records system. We may routinely use these records as described in the FTC’s Privacy Act system notices. For more information on how the FTC handles information that we collect, please read our privacy policy.